Will Saturday Night Live in any way acknowledge its 1,000th episode airing this weekend? Or is NBC’s long-running sketch comedy series a bit partied out?
After all—as noted by LateNighter’s Jon Schneider—SNL exhausted many bells and whistles to trumpet last year’s 50-year anniversary, and neither Episode 250 nor 500 were heralded with great hoopla.
What’s more, zero of the four promos for this Saturday’s episode—to be hosted by first-timer Alexander Skarsgård, with returning musical guest Cardi B—have even lightly alluded to any milestone.
Still, the imminent arrival of Episode 1,000 begs a revisiting of a previous, round-number landmark that SNL did make feel kinda special.
SNL‘s 100th episode, which aired March 15, 1980—two-thirds of the way through Season 5—featured surprise cameos from go. In the Cold Open, Garrett Morris led Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, and Gilda Radner in a seance to summon the spirits of those “no longer with us,” starting with former writer/cast member Michael “Mr. Mike” O’Donoghue, who didn’t hesitate to suggest that “since I left, the show really sucks rubber donkey lungs.”
John Belushi, who’d left SNL after Season 4 to chase a film career, was next to apparate—and immediately sniff that he’d hoped to come back for a sketch that had “a little class, a little dignity… something that was well-written.
“But noooooooooo,” he sneered in a callback to one of his catchphrases, before bellowing the week’s “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night”
Belushi would also play Lady Eleanor of Gaunt in the “Minstrels of Newcastle” sketch that followed “Weekend Update,” while other Episode 100 cameos included three-time host/Monty Python vet Michael Palin (as one of the “Minstrels,” and the host of the violent “Talk or Die” talk show); Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (as the narrator of the grim tale of “The Biggest Leprechaun,” and a shill for New York State wines that discriminating winos Garrett Morris and Bill Murray rebuffed), and one-time host/sometime-presidential candidate/consumer protection activist Ralph Nader (who contributed a scathing rebuke of Big Business and Big Oil in an “Update” hit).
Speaking of Bill Murray—whose aforementioned wino was undeniably Carl the Groundskeeper from his and Chevy Chase’s upcoming film comedy Caddyshack—Episode 100 officially had no host (Paul Simon and James Taylor were musical guests), so monologue duty fell to Murray. He delivered no spoken jokes, however, but instead crooned, Nick the Lounge Singer-like, a love song to New York, that “city of dreeeeeeams.”
Murray also appeared in the 13th—and final—hangout with “The Nerds,” given that Season 5 would be the swan song for him as well as Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin. (The premise: Todd was running for student body president, with Morris’ Grant, a bussed-in classmate, acting as his wholly unnecessary bodyguard. Alas, a previous mooning incident promised to be the scandal that brought down Todd’s candidacy.)
“Update” was as usual anchored by Curtin and Murray, and in hindsight what’s noteworthy is how few of the jokes were driven by the politics of the times. Sure, there was mention of President Jimmy Carter’s anti-inflation efforts (sound familiar?), and Murray did a fun bit trying out new headwear on an Ayatollah Khomeini mannequin. But you also had a smitten Curtin currying a visit from Walter Cronkite by reporting a lie about the revered newsman being attacked by Malaysian butterflies. We also saw Radner’s Roseanne Roseannadanna turn a story about breastfeeding into an unsavory anecdote about “Perfect 10” Bo Derek’s dangling nose hair.
The March 15, 1980 SNL was rounded out by a fake ad for a new TV set that boasted, well, “more parts”; a pre”Update” set from musical guests Simon and Taylor, and later a performance by Sanborn; and Murray as David Susskind interviewing extreme plastic surgery patients.
But it was the aforementioned “Minstrels of Newcastle” that would help the milestone episode make SNL history. As the titular musicians struggled to get Murray’s drummer to keep a proper beat, featured player Paul Shaffer’s increasingly exasperated piper was all “floggin‘!” this and “floggin‘!” that, until at one point he let slip with the actual F-word. It was the live series’ first unbleeped cuss word—and it remains intact to this day on Peacock.
Saturday Night Live‘s 100th episode can be streamed on Peacock, F-bomb and all.
